Redemption
by Qelah Sebatyne
Summary: 150,000 years later: A fan gets the surprise of her life.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Battlestar_ _Galactica_ and I don't want to. I have not and will not make any money off this story. Basically what I'm trying to do is rectify an egregious sin committed by the show's writers. I mean, you don't kill off the hottest character in a series… that's just plain rude.

**Feedback:** Comments, reviews and flames are welcome.

**Chapter 1:**

"Bella, what's that noise?" Kaylee Carter yelled from the living room.

"I was going to ask you that!" Bella Sullivan tried to shout back as she sprang from her desk chair, but the intensifying roar from… something… overhead drowned out her voice. She raced out of the office, her long brown hair streaming behind her, and nearly crashed into her blonde roommate and business partner in the hallway.

CRASH! CRRRAAAACK! Tinkle tinkle plink.

Silence.

Bella and Kaylee stared at each other, eyes wide.

"What the hell?" Kaylee whispered. Her normally pale face was now a sickly white.

"I don't know." Bella frowned. "But it was in the backyard!" she suddenly shouted. She turned and raced down the hall and into the kitchen, with Kaylee following hard on her heels. They skidded to a halt at the kitchen window, and Bella shoved the yellow-and-white checkered curtain aside.

"No way," she whispered. She flung open the kitchen door and raced outside and down the back steps. Kaylee crashed into Bella as she abruptly stopped, arms pin-wheeling, to avoid stepping into an ankle-deep ocean of ice shards.

The ocean at the edge of the kitchen stairs flowed upward into the mountain of shattered ice that protruded from a newly-formed crater in the middle of the yard. Overhead, the sky was blue and there was not a cloud to be seen.

"It does _not_ rain ice in Florida in July," Kaylee stated flatly.

Bella shook her head. "No. It doesn't." She scanned the ice mountain. Her brown eyes narrowed. A corner of something gray protruded from the ice. "What's that?"

Kaylee followed her gaze. "What's what?"

"That. It looks like wood." Ignoring the cold on her flip-flopped feet, Bella waded into the ice. She crouched down and took a closer look. It was wood, all right. Shaped into a perfect corner, and painted gray. She shoved a tanned hand into the cold mass on top of the object, and an avalanche of rapidly melting ice cascaded to the ground around her. A couple more emphatic swings completely exposed the object.

It was a gray wooden box about six feet long and about three feet wide at its wider end. Its lid was nailed shut.

"Holy shit," Bella whispered. "It's a fucking coffin!"


	2. Chapter 2

"That's impossible," Kaylee said flatly. "No one wraps a coffin in ice and drops it out of the sky."

"I don't think that's what happened," Bella replied softly. "Someone was buried in space, ice collected on the outside of the coffin, and somehow it got into a decaying orbit until it crashed." She shook her head. "I swear to God, though, this coffin looks like something straight out of _Battlestar_ _Galactica_."

Rolling her blue eyes, Kaylee put her hands on her hips. "You and your sci-fi obsession. Of course it does, silly. They modeled their props after real-world objects."

"Just help me get the lid off," Bella grated.

Tentatively, Kaylee stuck one flip-flopped foot into the icy slurry. "Jesus, it's cold." Then she plunged in, urged on by Bella's impatient gesture. Kaylee moved to the foot end of the casket and gripped the edge of the lid, just as Bella was doing at the head end.

"On the count of three," Bella said. "One. Two. Three!"

Bella and Kaylee simultaneously put all their strength behind prying the lid upward. Nothing happened at first. Then nails screeched against wood, and the lid popped open. Kaylee and Bella nearly fell across the open top of the coffin.

"Argh!" Bella pushed herself upward and dropped to her knees beside the casket.

Shouting with surprise, Kaylee tripped and fell on her rump into a lake of ice water. Muttering something that might have been a curse word, Kaylee joined her roommate beside the open coffin.

Steeling herself, Bella took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and looked down into the casket.

And found herself staring into an inert but very familiar brown face.

Bella's blood froze, and tears sprang to her eyes. The sensation was of falling down a tunnel as the rest of the world disappeared. All that existed at the bottom of this tunnel was Bella and the perfectly, miraculously preserved body in the coffin.

"Oh, my God," she heard herself whisper, as if from very far away. "It's Felix Gaeta!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Kaylee stared at her insane roommate in exasperation. "You know that's impossible!"

But Bella didn't answer. She was already unbuttoning the dead man's uniform shirt and reaching for his dog tags.

Wait. Uniform shirt? Kaylee took a closer look. The body's navy-blue uniform did look a lot like the uniforms the Colonial Fleet wore in _Battlestar_ _Galactica_, she conceded silently. But she certainly wasn't going to tell Bella that!

In that moment, Bella found what she was looking for. She came up clutching an octagonal piece of metal that still hung on a chain from the man's neck. "See?" she demanded triumphantly, even though her eyes threatened to spill over.

Kaylee looked. Sure enough, etched into the metal were the words _F_. _Gaeta_. Kaylee felt her heart seize up with the kind of creeped-out horror she normally got from movies like _Paranormal_ _Activity_. What the hell was going on here?

Meanwhile, Bella tucked the dog tags gently back into their place and re-buttoned Gaeta's shirt. As she pulled her hands away, her eyes traveled up and down the length of the body. His uniform was undamaged.

"Looks like they put him in a fresh uniform before they buried him," she said in a tiny, tremulous voice. "At least they showed him that much respect." She burst into tears.

Beside her, Kaylee let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, for the love of God, Bella! You're crying your eyes out over a man who died before your great-great-great-grandparents were even born."

Bella raised her head and turned blurry eyes on her roommate. "You'd be freaking out if this were Harry Potter, so shut up." She dropped her head again.

"Okay. Fair point." Kaylee put her arm around her friend's shoulders. She didn't understand how Bella could have invested so much emotional energy in a supposedly fictional character, but this had to be hard for her. Kaylee closed her eyes and swallowed against a sudden rise of bile in her throat. Even she couldn't stare at a frozen but rapidly thawing body lying in a coffin.

Eventually, Bella's sobs began to subside. She didn't know how long she'd been kneeling there, her arms on the edge of the coffin, her forehead propped on her arms. She had to make sure Gaeta got a proper burial. A headstone. Flowers to decorate the grave. She wasn't sure how, since she didn't have the money to buy a burial plot. But she had to do something, she knew, because no one else would. She raised her head again to stare into the still and silent face which was, by some God-given miracle, undamaged.

Rattle. Rattle, snuff. Snuff.

Unbelievably, Gaeta's nostrils flared. His lips twitched. And then his chest began to rise and fall in the rhythm of normal respiration.

If hearts could really leap, Bella's would have hit its head on the moon. Unspeakable hope rose in her chest. "Oh, my God," she whispered. Tears once again streamed down her face, but this time they were tears of joy. "He's breathing!"

Kaylee jumped back. "That's impossible!" she blurted in a tone of baffled incredulity.

"Lots of impossible things have been happening lately," Bella replied. "Remember the miniature ysalamiri we saw in the yard a couple weeks ago?"

"That was _not_ an ysalamiri. It was a lizard with a birth defect."

"Yesterday, I would've been inclined to believe you. Now, I'm not so sure." Bella reached back into the coffin and wrapped her hand around Gaeta's wrist, searching for a pulse. She didn't find anything at first, and adjusted her grip. Wait, there it was… and getting steadily stronger!

"He has a pulse!" she exulted. She transitioned from taking his pulse to holding his hand. She stared hard at his face, straining to see the tiniest flicker of movement.

Bella waited. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Then, finally, Gaeta's head wobbled slightly from side to side and his eyes fluttered open.

Bella's tear-streaked face broke into a wide grin. "Welcome back, gorgeous," she said softly.


	4. Chapter 4

"Where am I?" Felix Gaeta croaked. His voice creaked like a wheel that had remained still for decades.

"Anole, Florida," Bella replied. "I'm Bella Sullivan, and this is my friend Kaylee Carter. Can you tell me your name, your rank, and the name of the ship you serve on?"

"Felix Gaeta, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Battlestar _Galactica_." He paused. "What happened?"

Bella shrugged. "An icy meteorite landed in my backyard. It shattered on impact, and you fell out of it."

"Are you a Cylon?"

Bella suppressed a groan. Why did he have to ask this question so soon? "Just a little," she answered, keeping her voice deliberately unconcerned. "Everyone here is ultimately descended from the hybrid child Hera Agathon, but it's been so many generations that a genetic test would probably only show the tiniest trace."

"Wait a second!" Kaylee interrupted. "Are you saying all that 'mitochondrial Eve' crap is true?"

"I wouldn't have thought so," Bella shrugged. She indicated Gaeta. "But there's your evidence right there. I bet if we did a genetic test there'd be noticeable differences between him and us."

"Why?" Kaylee wanted to know.

"Well, because we're descended from Hera, and he's not."

"Thank the gods for that." Gaeta looked around. "Am I in a coffin?"

"Yes," Bella confirmed, and swallowed hard.

"But I'm alive?"

"Yes!" This time, Bella's tone was emphatic. "You are."

"But… that's impossible." Gaeta looked confused. "They killed me."

"They _thought_ they killed you," Bella corrected gently. "Evidently, they were wrong, wrong, _wrong_."

Gaeta shook his head as if trying to clear it. "I was shot at least ten times. There's no way I could've survived that."

"Are you in pain?" Bella asked.

"No. But that doesn't make sense." He squeezed his eyes shut in confusion. Then they popped open again. "Check my wounds," he said suddenly.

"Of course." Bella unbuttoned his shirt as quickly as she could. She lifted the black and gray shirts underneath and found…

Scars. Lots of them.

But no open wounds.

Her breath left her in one huge whoosh of relief. Her hands came to rest on his rib cage.

His eyes closed.

"Felix!" Bella said sharply. "Stay awake! I don't want you falling asleep until I have a better idea of what kind of condition you're in."

He shook his head, but he opened his eyes again. "I'm not falling asleep. It's just that…" His face flushed red. "Never mind."

Bella nodded and left her hands where they were. "Well, I have good news. Your wounds seem to be fully healed. You have scars; that's to be expected, but they're all closed. Look like they have been for some time."

Felix looked suddenly perplexed. "But how…?"

Bella thought hard. _Of_ _course_! The answer was obvious… it was the only thing possible, really. "Gaius Baltar was present at your last meal," she blurted. "Did he give you a pill? Or slip anything into your food?"

Felix squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember. "He gave me a pill," he said slowly when he opened them. "He said it would help with the pain."

"Did it?" Bella asked quietly.

"Maybe a little. I don't know." He winced, and shuddered at remembered agony.

Bella remained silent, her fingers brushing some of the scars on his rib cage. She took a deep breath. "I don't think that was its only function," she began. "It probably wasn't even its main function."

"What do you mean?"

"There was something in that pill – some sort of nanotech, probably, that's the only thing that makes sense – that when you were shot, it dropped you into suspended animation," Bella continued, thinking out loud. "Once you were suspended, it healed your wounds. It probably rebuilt your tissues atom by atom. God knows it had enough time to do it."

"But… why would Dr. Baltar do that?" Felix asked in a bewildered tone.

Bella shrugged. "You saved his life once, remember? He was just returning the favor. Either that or he believed you deserved to live. Say what you will about Gaius Baltar, but he was right about that one."

"Did he give a pill to Zarek, too?" Felix asked.

"God, I hope not," Bella grated through clenched teeth. "The universe is a much better place without Tom Zarek in it." She forced herself to relax. "Okay, next question: which leg was it you lost in that _Demetrius_ fiasco?"

"The right one. Gods damn that Anders asshole anyway."

Bella let her eyes travel down Felix's right leg… and gasped in excited surprise. Sticking out from his pants leg was a fully-formed, if pink and immature, foot.

"Whoa," she whistled. "Baltar's nanotech has been busy. It regenerated your missing leg, too!"

"_What_?" Felix grabbed the sidewalls of the casket and tried to pull himself up. Bella slid an arm around his waist and lifted him to a sitting position. He rested his head on her shoulder and allowed her to support him while he stared at the fleshy impossibility protruding from the leg of his pants.

"I… I can't move it."

"Try your other leg," Bella replied.

There was a pause. Then his curly black hair brushed Bella's cheek as he shook his head in disappointment. "Can't move that one, either." He tried to lie back down.

"Uh uh, you are _not_ lying back down," Bella said firmly as she tightened her grip. "A coffin is no place for someone who's alive." She looked up. "Kaylee, go into my office and get my rolling desk chair. We need to get him inside."

"Okay," Kaylee replied. "What do we do about the stairs?"

"Get that old door out of the garage," Bella ordered. "Use it as a ramp."

"Okay." Kaylee scampered off.

Bella turned back to Felix, who was once again simply leaning against her. "Kaylee and I are going to wheel you inside. The thing I can't stress enough is that your new leg has never been used before. It will _not_ support your weight, even once you get your muscle control back. It won't be strong enough for several weeks at least, and if you put too much weight on it too soon, you _will_ break it. And I don't know how to fix broken legs, so please don't."

"I won't. But I don't get why my _good_ leg doesn't work."

"You've been in suspended animation for 150,000 years," Bella explained gently. "I'm actually surprised you don't have a major case of hibernation sickness. That you're not blind the way Han Solo was when he first came out of the carbonite. But don't worry. You'll get your legs back."

"A hundred and fifty thousand years?" Felix blurted in disbelief. "And who's Han Solo?"

"I'll explain later," Bella said as Kaylee rattled down the kitchen stairs with Bella's office chair.

Kaylee shoved the chair over to Bella with a splash. "I'll go get that door," Kaylee said, and took off again.

Bella chose not to break the silence that followed Kaylee's departure. She simply knelt beside the coffin, supporting Felix. She dropped her head and gently kissed the top of his head. He didn't seem to notice, which was reasonable, since Bella had no idea how well his nerves were working at the moment. Hers, on the other hand, were working just fine, and her nose informed her that he was in serious need of a shower. No matter; there was time enough for that when he was feeling stronger.

At that moment, Kaylee returned and dropped the old door on the back stairs with a tremendous clatter.

Felix jumped.

"Jeez, Kaylee," Bella complained. "Are you trying to wake up the neighborhood? You know, it's a good thing our dear landlords are at their cabin in Maine for the summer, or we'd be in so much trouble right now."

"Yeah. Pretty amazing no one's called the police about UFO's or something. We're still going to have to explain that crater at some point, though."

"We can just say a meteorite hit," Bella replied. "We don't have to tell them there was anyone in it. Come on, help me lift him."

"You're kidding, right?" Kaylee asked skeptically.

"No, I'm not kidding," Bella retorted. "Lift his legs – carefully, don't let the right one touch anything – and I'll lift his shoulders. Felix, if you can help at all with your arms, please do. We're not all that strong."

"I'll try."

"Kaylee, remember to lift the right way. Okay, on the count of three," Bella ordered. "One, two, three!"

Grunting with effort, Bella and Kaylee lifted, and Felix pushed upward against the walls of the casket. He wasn't much help, since he wasn't fully in control of his muscles yet.

Bella struggled to lift correctly, bending only at the knees and not at the waist. Felix weighed as much as she did, and considerably more than Kaylee, and the wall of the coffin was in the way, making the lifting awkward. But eventually, groaning under the strain and sweating in the Florida heat, they managed to lift him clear of the casket and drop him safely, if unceremoniously, into the office chair.

"Whew! We made it." Bella wiped her brow and then dropped her hands to her patient's shoulders. "You okay?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah," she grunted, stretching. "My back is gonna be sore, but I'm okay. Kaylee, let's rest a couple minutes before we try to shove this chair up that stupid door."

"I'm with you on that," Kaylee replied. "Oh, my _God_, that was hard. I'll go get some water." The door rattled as she walked up it and disappeared through the back door, returning a minute later with the water pitcher and three glasses. She handed two of them to Bella and filled all three.

"Thanks. Felix, want some water?"

"Thanks." His hand was only a little shaky as he took the offered glass and brought it to his lips. A little spilled on the front of his uniform, but he drank the rest and handed the glass back.

Bella took the glass, and then downed the contents of her own glass in a single gulp. Kaylee took all three glasses and the pitcher back into the kitchen. When she returned, Bella looked at her and said, "Ready?"

"Yeah. How exactly are we going to do this?"

"We need to push him forward up the ramp," Bella said. "If we can get two wheels onto the door, we should be able to push him up."

"Okay."

It took them a few minutes to position the chair. Then Bella tucked Felix's legs safely out of the way and she and Kaylee pushed the chair to the edge of the door. They lifted the two leading wheels onto it. Then they rammed their shoulders into the back of the chair and, inch by excruciating inch, they managed to push it up their makeshift ramp. The front wheels fell off the edge of the door and onto the top step, and they grabbed Felix's shoulders, somehow managing to prevent him from falling face first onto the deck.

They stopped on the back stoop, panting with exertion and relief. When they got their breaths back, Kaylee asked, "Okay, where do we take him?"

"My room," Bella replied. "I'm the one with the double bed."

Kaylee nodded and held the back door open. On a flat surface, Bella was easily able to push the chair through the kitchen, across the hall, and into her bedroom. Kaylee followed and helped Bella transfer Felix from the chair to the bed, which proved a much easier job than removing him from the coffin had been. They settled him comfortably on his back with his head on a pillow, and then Kaylee discreetly left the room.

Bella stood by the side of the bed, silently looking down into Felix's face.

His dark brown eyes locked on hers. "What if my legs don't come back?"

"They will," she said. "It just takes time."

"But what if they don't?"

"They will," Bella replied, softly but firmly. "But don't worry. I'll take care of you no matter what."

He blinked. "Why?"

Bella sat down on the edge of the bed and took one of his hands in both of hers. "Because I've loved you ever since I first heard about you." She didn't bother to wipe away the tear that was making a glistening streak down her face. "I never thought I'd get to take care of you. But now that Gaius Baltar has given me that opportunity…" Her voice trailed off. She leaned down and kissed Felix on the forehead.

"How do you know so much about me?" Felix asked when Bella sat up.

"The story of the _Galactica_ came down to us in our modern mythology," she replied, gently running her hand through his hair. "There've been a couple of TV series about it, different iterations of 'all this has happened before; all this will happen again,' I guess. The second one had you in it. The actor who played you looked _exactly_ like you. That's how I recognized you when Kaylee and I opened the coffin."

"Exactly like me? Isn't that a little creepy?"

Bella shrugged. "Not really. I've heard it said that everyone has a 'twin.' I guess this is just proof that your 'twin can be born 150,000 years away from you."

"You keep saying that. What is this 150,000 years thing?" Felix demanded.

"According to the mythology – well, the TV series, anyway – the survivors of the Cylon attack landed on the 'new' Earth a 150,000 years ago," Bella explained. "Hera Agathon grew to adulthood here… well, in Africa, not in Florida. She must've had many children, because everyone alive today is directly descended from her. Archaeologists have actually found a fossilized skeleton in Africa that some say belonged to Hera."

Felix shook his head. "That is so frakking weird."

"Agreed." Bella paused. "Are you hungry?"

Felix shook his head. "No, thanks. I'm just tired."

"Okay. I'll leave you alone so you can rest." She tried to stand up, but his grip on her hand tightened.

"Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"

She smiled. "Of course." She kissed him again – on the lips this time—and when she sat up, his eyes were closed. She sat beside him until his breathing took on the deep, even rhythm of sleep. She gently extricated her hand from his and left the room.


	5. Chapter 5

The next time Bella walked into her bedroom to check on Felix, his eyes were open and he was lying on his side.

"Hey, you rolled over," she said brightly. "Good for you."

"Harrumph. If that's a milestone, I have a really long way to go."

Bella sat down and put her hand on his arm. "You've been critically wounded," she reminded him, "_twice_. Considering that, you're doing absolutely fantastic."

He sighed. "Any chance of going to the head?"

"Sure. I got you a wheelchair, so now you can roll around the apartment to your heart's content." She stood up, went into the hall, and returned with a blue-upholstered, gleaming wheelchair. She parked it next to the bed and locked the wheels. "Can you sit up?"

Using his arms, Felix managed to shove himself into a sitting position. "Guess so," he said with satisfaction.

"Good. See if you can get into the chair by yourself. Remember to watch your right leg."

Felix looked at the chair for a moment, then grabbed its arms, and pushed upward. His left leg supported a little bit of his weight, helping him to pivot into the wheelchair.

Bella reached down and unlocked the wheels. "Go out the door and the bathroom's on your right."

"Thanks." Felix put his hands on his wheel rims and pushed. It took some effort to get moving on the carpet, but a moment later he rolled smoothly out of the room.

Bella followed at a discreet distance. When she was sure the chair would fit through the bathroom door, she retreated to the kitchen, where Kaylee was slicing tomatoes into a green salad. Bella went to the stove to check on the chicken pieces that were baking in their wine sauce in the oven.

A moment later, Felix rolled into the kitchen, following his nose. "Something smells good."

Bella turned away from the stove and grinned. "Good, I was hoping to hear you say that. You like chicken?"

"I like anything. I'm starving."

"Supper's almost ready," Bella told him. "Go a little easy, though. You haven't eaten in 150,000 years. You wouldn't want to make yourself sick." She took the chicken out of the oven and set it on top of the stove. Then she moved one of the chairs away from the kitchen table so Felix could roll right up to the table. She filled a plate with rice and chicken, smothered it with wine and mushroom sauce, and set it before him. "Go ahead and start. Don't bother waiting for us."

Ever polite, though, Felix waited until Bella and Kaylee had sat down with their plates, and the salad had been passed around. Then he took a bite. "Mmm. This is delicious. Who made it?"

"Thanks," Bella replied. "I did the chicken and Kaylee made the salad."

Felix took another bite, and another. Bella ate at a more relaxed pace as she watched Felix try to restrain himself from doing an all-out Hoover imitation on his dinner. He seemed to look stronger with each bite he took.

"So," he said finally, when his plate was more than half empty. "I take it you both live here?"

"Yeah," Kaylee replied, "for now. Soon I'm going to be moving in with my boyfriend, Kevin. This is really Bella's apartment. She just graciously allows me to live here."

"You pay half the rent," Bella pointed out. "Believe me, I'm going to miss that."

"True," Kaylee agreed. "But it will probably actually be better for business, us not being on top of each other all the time."

"Business?" asked Felix.

"We run a fabric and craft store," Bella explained. "Bellisima's is the only store of its kind in Anole, which is probably the only reason we turn as much of a profit as we do."

"Fabric? People make their own clothes here?"

"A few people do, just for fun," Bella replied. "But quilting, knitting, crocheting, etc. are pretty big around here, especially with the retired folks. By the way, if you want a job, you're welcome to help out at the store."

"Thanks." Felix cleaned the last bit of chicken and rice off his plate and dove into the salad. They finished the meal, including slices of store-bought apple pie topped with dollops of vanilla ice cream, in companionable silence.

After dinner, Felix cleared his throat. "I don't mean to talk rude or anything, but is there any chance of taking a shower? I sort of have the feeling I stink."

Bella found herself giggling at his awkwardness. "I don't care how bad you smell as long as you're here with me. But of course, you can take a shower. I'll put a stool in the shower so you can sit down." She hurried into the living room, where she snatched up a plastic stool that was serving as an end table and carried it into the bathroom. She set it on the floor of the shower and then placed body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and linens where Felix could reach them without standing up. She emerged from the bathroom to find Felix parked in the hall. "All set," she told him. "Have a good shower."

At that moment, Kaylee hurried out of her room with a pile of clothes, which she deposited on Felix's lap. "Kevin left these here," she explained. "They're clean. I'm sure he won't mind if you borrow them."

"Thanks," Felix said. Bella moved out of the way, and he rolled into the bathroom. She closed the door behind him.

By the time he emerged from the bathroom, Kaylee and Bella had the dishes washed and were sitting in the living room, watching the evening news. Kaylee's tan-and-white cat, Patrick, was curled up on her lap. Bella's cats, black-and-white Mikey and pure-white Katie, were curled up together on an armchair.

When Felix rolled into the room, Katie raised her head. Then, with a meow, she launched off the armchair and hopped into Felix's lap. She turned around a couple of times, lay down and went to sleep.

Felix gave Bella a surprised look, and she grinned. Then he looked down and began petting the cat in his lap.

When the news ended at ten, it was time for bed. The clothes Felix had borrowed from Kevin included navy-blue pajamas, so Felix just rolled back to Bella's room and lifted himself into bed. Bella followed, changed into her nightgown, and climbed in beside him.

He turned his head to look at her. "So, is this good night?"

"Yeah. You can use my shoulder as a pillow if you want."

Felix dragged himself across the bed and rested his head on Bella's shoulder. She folded her arm around him and began gently rubbing his back while her other hand reached to turn off the bedside light. The room went dark and she wrapped her other arm around him as well.

She was still holding him when she fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

When Felix woke up in the middle of the night, he wasn't sure where he was. Then he became aware of a heartbeat that was not his own and a delightfully warm body pressed against his. He realized that he was still securely wrapped in Bella's arms, and he suddenly felt very, very safe. Not just physically safe, but emotionally safe as well. Clearly, she'd been serious when she pledged to take care of him no matter what. Even in sleep, her embrace was loose enough to allow him to breathe easily, and yet strong as cast iron, as if she were afraid there was some force in the universe that could tear him from her side.

Felix snuggled closer, tightening his arms around her. His heart swelled with a love unlike any he had ever felt before. Sure, he had had relationships in the past, with both women and men, but those had been fleeting and impermanent, based almost solely upon physical attraction, with nothing deeper to underpin them. They had almost invariably ended catastrophically.

But Bella was different. She was his miracle, his gift from Gaius Baltar, Felix's last friend aboard _Galactica_, and Baltar's magic medicine.

Bella stirred in her sleep, and her head turned toward Felix. He raised his head and lightly brushed his lips against hers. Then he rested his head on her shoulder once more, turned his nose into the folds of her nightgown, and inhaled deeply.

It might have taken 150,000 years, but he had finally come home.


	7. Chapter 7

"Felix, you awake?" Bella whispered to the gorgeous man resting comfortably in her arms.

"Hmmm?" he murmured sleepily. He stirred. "Yeah. Morning, love."

She turned to face him, and pressed her lips against his. They kissed passionately, their hands sliding over one another's bodies. He eased her onto her back, lifted himself on top of her, and it became increasingly obvious what was on his mind.

She opened her eyes and looked up into his. "Are you sure you're feeling up to this?"

His reply was definite, filled with anticipation. "Oh, you bet."

"All right, then," she grinned up at him. "Make my day."


	8. Chapter 8

"Morning, lovebirds," Kaylee said brightly as Felix rolled into the kitchen with Bella following close behind. "You know, I heard some _really_ weird noises coming out of your room this morning."

Felix flushed a deep red, but Bella didn't miss a beat. "Oh, you did, huh? What were you doing outside my door?"

Felix snorted with amusement. "Ah, she's got you on that one, Kaylee."

Now it was Kaylee's turn to blush. "I came out of the shower and, well, your door was open because of the cats," she defended herself. "I couldn't help but hear what was going on in there."

"Oh, well," Bella shrugged, "I guess I can't make fun of you about Kevin anymore, now can I?"

"No, you can't." Kaylee turned, opened a cupboard, and began considering her choice of breakfast cereals.

"Felix, want some coffee?" Bella asked.

"Thanks. That'd be great."

Bella moved to the counter and set up the coffee maker. When she turned around, Kaylee was seated at the table eating a bowl of cereal, and Felix was _standing_ at the counter, puzzling over the row of unfamiliar cereals in the cabinet.

"Ohmigod! Felix!" Bella flew across the room and slid an arm around his waist, ready to support him and help him back into his wheelchair.

"My left leg is fine," Felix assured her. "At this point, my right leg's the only reason I can't walk."

"I've still got my crutches from when I broke my leg in gymnastics," Kaylee volunteered around a mouthful of cereal. "I'm sure we can adjust them for you. Let me go get them." She jumped up and hurried out of the room.

She returned a moment later with a pair of crutches that were clearly adjusted for someone her height. She lengthened them and handed them to Felix. "Here, try these."

He took them and tested their height. "They're fine," he said. "Thanks, Kaylee."

"You're welcome." She returned to her breakfast.

Felix took a few trial steps with the crutches, and nodded with satisfaction. "Yeah, this'll be much better than the wheelchair. No offense, Bella."

Bella grinned. "See? You're going to be fine." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him with a thoroughness that took his breath away.

Kaylee rolled her eyes and muttered something that might have included the words "Mrs. Gaeta," but Bella couldn't be sure. She ignored Kaylee and went to pour the coffee.

Once they were all seated at the table, Kaylee changed the subject. "So, what are we going to do about getting him a driver's license and all that stuff?"

"We can't," Bella replied.

"Why not?" Felix asked, confused.

Bella took his hand across the table. "Because you're not in this country legally, and you can't apply for asylum because you don't have a believable origin story," she explained.

"Why can't I just tell them the truth – that I'm from Caprica and go from there?" Felix asked.

"A lot of knowledge has been lost since the time of _Galactica_," she told him. "Most people still believe that life on other planets is impossible, so if you go telling Immigration you're from another planet, you'll end up in the loony bin at best, or at worst, in some creepy laboratory in Area 51, with a bunch of mad scientists doing unspeakable experiments on you. I won't let that happen."

"Okay, okay, slow down!" Felix begged, looking totally lost. "Why would anyone believe life is impossible on another planet?"

"Religious reasons, mostly," Bella shrugged. "Our religious texts don't mention anything about other planets, so they can't possibly have life on them. The fact that we officially haven't found any _scientific_ evidence of alien life yet doesn't help, either."

"And what the _frak_ is Area 51?"

"Area 51 is a secret military base out in the middle of the desert where the government hides everything it doesn't want people to know about," Bella explained. "Popular wisdom holds that they're sitting on tons of info about aliens out there, definitely including alien corpses and possibly even live prisoners. Trust me; you do _not_ want to end up there."

Felix was looking a little green. "So that's where I would've ended up if I'd been as dead as Adama thought I was?"

"_No_," Bella said forcefully. "I would've made sure you got a proper burial. I'm not sure how. But I would've buried you in the backyard if I'd had to. I would never let any modern-day Josef Mengeles get their filthy hands on you. No _frakking_ way."

Felix raised Bella's hand to his lips and kissed it. Then he pressed her hand gently to his cheek. When he opened his eyes to look at her, they were glistening.

"Why would the government hide information on alien life?" he asked finally.

"It goes back to that whole divine-right-of-kings crapola," Bella replied. "People used to think that if someone was a king, it was because God willed it. No one thinks that anymore, but all our attitudes toward the legitimacy of our governments are still ultimately descended from that idea. So when we start finding out that things that aren't mentioned in our ancient religious texts actually exist, people start questioning the existence of God himself. And the government thinks that if you take away its aura of God-willed-it in the eyes of the people, then the people will start questioning the legitimacy of the government. It could be the end of life as we know it. Or so they think."

Felix shook his head, suppressing a sigh. "Whatever. Okay, next question. I notice you keep referring to 'god' – singular – instead of 'gods' – plural. Is that the Cylon god you're talking about?"

"Uhhh…" Bella groaned. "I don't know how to answer that. No. Maybe. If Sharon Agathon taught her interpretation of God to Hera, well, I suppose the origin of monotheism could go back that far. I don't know. Don't forget, it's been 150,000 years."

"Okay, fair enough." Felix kissed Bella's hand again. "So what do we do about assimilating me into your society?"

"You're a pretty good hacker, right?" Bella asked.

"With my own technology, well, sure," Felix replied. "But I know nothing about yours."

"I'm sure our technology is simple enough that you'll be able to figure it out in about five minutes," she assured him. "Okay, maybe ten. I'll tell you the basics of what you need and then turn you loose on my office computer. Feel free to hack into my records and use them as a model."

"Mine, too," Kaylee gurgled around a mouthful of food. She swallowed. "Sorry. Gotta go." She stood up, placed her dishes in the sink, and left the kitchen.

"See ya," Bella called after her. She turned to Felix. "You and I need to get going, too. I'll bring you to the store with me, and you can work in my office while I'm on the floor."

"Okay," Felix replied. He grinned. "What, you're not going to hide me in your apartment where the government can't find me?"

"I'm going to hide you where I can _protect_ you if I need to," she answered firmly. "Remember what I said about Area 51? That means keeping you with me."

"Fine by me," said Felix. "I like being with you. You have a gun?"

"Nope, just a knife," Bella replied. "But if the feds come walking into the store looking for you, we're frakked anyway."

"True enough."

Bella stood up, walked around the table, and wrapped her arms around Felix from behind. He looked up at her, and she leaned down to kiss him. They kissed until his neck got sore from bending at that awkward angle and he had to bring his head back to its normal position. She held him a few moments longer, her lips nuzzling his black curls, and then released him. She collected the dishes and placed them in the sink.

"Okay, let's get going."


	9. Chapter 9

"All right," Bella said as Felix settled into a chair at one of the computer terminals in the back office of Bellisima's Fabric and Crafts. She handed him copies of her birth certificate, Social Security Card, and college transcript. "The first thing you need is a birth certificate stating that you were born in this country, to parents who were also born here," she continued. "That means you will have to fabricate some documents for them, too, of course."

"How do I explain that they're no longer around?" Felix asked.

Bella shrugged. "We've had enough natural disasters and stuff over the years. You can probably bury them in one of those casualty totals. Make sure you pick one that occurred after you would've turned eighteen, so you don't raise any red flags about orphaned children."

"Okay. Should be fun." His tone was determined but belied his use of the word "fun."

"I've got to go get ready to open," Bella told him. "I'll leave you in peace so you can work." She kissed him passionately, then turned and left the office, closing the door behind her.

Alone, Felix found himself staring at a completely unfamiliar computer screen. He tried moving the strange object Bella had called a "mouse," and entered a few trial keystrokes.

It took him about five minutes to figure out how to navigate within the computer. Then he "double-clicked" on the planet icon Bella had called an "Internet browser" – the terminology was exceedingly strange – and began searching for the government "web" sites he needed.

Earth's network security was porous as hell, Felix discovered. Before long he was chewing through firewalls like a caterpillar devouring a leaf. Covering his tracks was appallingly easy.

_Well, good_, he thought. _I can generate a whole life story for myself, and no one will ever know I was here. Or know it's all made up_.

Easy was not the same thing as fast, however. Felix typed, cut and pasted, spliced, and spun stories out of whole cloth until he felt as if his head were going to explode. He had no idea how much time had passed, but when Bella came in to check on him, he was glad for the interruption.

"Hey, how's it going?" Bella asked as she stepped up behind his chair and began caressing his shoulders.

Felix leaned his head back against her belly and looked up into her eyes. "Your government's security protocols _suck_," he said. "I can take down their firewalls like they're not even there. Now that I'm in, though, actually creating the records is frakking tedious. My eyes are about to cross."

She leaned down and kissed him. "Want to take a break?"

_Oh, yes, I would just love a break. But…_ Felix squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to get rid of the lines of code dancing inside his eyelids. "Uh, well, I can't really go hobbling around your store while I've got your government's entire computer system – figuratively speaking, of course – in pieces on my desk, now can I?"

Bella pulled the chair away from the desk and sat down on Felix's lap, facing him, careful to put the vast majority of her weight on his left leg. She wrapped her arms around him, and he inhaled sharply as her hands slid under the hem of his shirt. His arms slid around her waist, and he covered her lips with his.

When they came up for air, she smiled down at him. "I think you can tell I wasn't suggesting you leave the room," she said in a liquid tone that promised everything.

"Uh…" Felix hesitated, even as his "other head" sprang to excited, quivering attention. "We really can't… not here in the office?"

"I own the store, remember?" Her hand moved, showing him that she was aware of his excited state.

"But what if Kaylee walks in?" he persisted, fighting to keep his brain in control.

"She won't. It's her day off." Bella stood up, walked to the door, and locked it with a resounding _ch_-_thunk_.

She returned and sat down on the edge of the desk. She took his hands in hers. Felix found himself getting to his feet – well, one-and-a-half feet. Clearly, his good judgment was going to lose this battle.

"Okay," he acknowledged, and took one last, half-hearted grab for sanity. "But where?"

Bella let go of his hands and grasped his waist, pulling him closer. "Right here, on the desk."

Felix shook his head, then burst out laughing. "So you're a rebel in addition to everything else? _Gods_, I love you!"

Bella pulled him onto the desk with her.

Good judgment was overrated anyway.


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay, we're closed and everyone else is gone," Bella announced that evening as she walked into the office. "How far did you get?"

Felix let out a sigh of relief and handed her a fistful of printouts. "I am now – on paper, at least – a fully-functioning American citizen. No one will ever know the whole thing is one huge lie." Their wild, wonderful, and flagrant misuse of the desk earlier in the day had given him just the boost he had needed, and he had returned to the monumental task of fabricating an entire life history out of thin air with renewed vigor, purpose, and efficiency.

Bella rifled through the papers and let out a low whistle. "A transcript from _elementary_ school? _Damn_, you're good." She delved deeper into the pile. "Degrees in computer science and physics from huge schools where it would be easy to be forgotten, with grades that were good but not outstanding enough to be memorable. Excellent!"

"I still have to go to the RMV to get a replacement for my 'stolen' driver's license, and wait for my 'replacement' Social Security card, along with certified copies of my birth certificate, my parents' birth and death certificates, to come in the mail, and then I'll be ready to open my own startup."

"What kind of company are you planning to start?" Bella asked.

"One that does 'research' into viable means of space travel," Felix announced proudly. "I'm going to figure out how to build an FTL drive. I don't like the idea of being stuck on one planet. Once I've drawn up the plans – I studied FTL technology at my real college – I just have to figure out how to fabricate it out of local materials. Then we can go anywhere we want!"

He stood up, and they wrapped their arms around each other. "I would love to explore space with you," Bella whispered into his ear. "We'll find our own private planet. You'll be its king, and I'll be its queen, and no one will ever frak with us again."

"Sounds good to me," Felix agreed. He kissed her, and she kissed him back. When their lips parted, he continued to hold her close, and looked into her eyes. "Let's get started."

"I'm with you every step of the way," she whispered. And she pressed her lips against his.

THE END


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